Chris POV
As the meeting finally came to an end, the board members practically rushed out of the conference room.
Within moments, only three people remained: me, Helen, and Diablo.
The board would take care of everything regarding the announcement.
By tomorrow, the entire business world would know that a seventeen-year-old had become the next CEO of Sterling Global Resources.
It should have been the only thing on my mind after everything I’d done to secure the position.
Instead, only one word kept echoing inside my head.
Mutant.
“You’re… a mutant!”
The old man’s terrified voice replayed in my mind, and the more I thought about it, the deeper my frown became.
How had I ignored something so obvious?
If mutants existed, then—
I froze.
“Fuck.”
I’d spent hours searching the news for anything related to mutants.
The Brotherhood of Mutants, Magneto, flying city blocks—anything that would confirm their existence.
I’d found nothing, and eventually, I’d started assuming that mutants either didn’t exist in this universe or hadn’t revealed themselves yet.
But there was one incredibly obvious thing I’d never thought to check.
Xavier’s School.
Without wasting another second, I grabbed my laptop and opened the browser.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Search.
The results appeared almost immediately.
One.
Two.
Three.
There was an official website, news articles, old photographs, and enough information to make the answer painfully obvious.
It existed.
I slowly leaned back in my chair and stared at the screen.
“…I’m so screwed.”
Until today, a tiny part of me had hoped this world was missing one of Marvel’s biggest headaches.
Apparently, it wasn’t.
Mutants existed, which meant Charles Xavier existed.
Magneto existed.
The Brotherhood existed.
The X-Men existed.
And if they existed, then there was a very real possibility that one day I’d have to deal with Apocalypse, Phoenix, and whatever other mutant-related catastrophe this universe decided to throw at me.
I slowly closed the laptop.
Wonderful.
As if gods, aliens, mad titans, and demons weren’t enough.
Now I also have mutants.
I let out a long sigh.
My future had just become a lot more complicated.
Movement beside me finally pulled me out of my thoughts.
Helen.
She had remained almost completely still since the meeting ended.
Considering everything she’d just witnessed, I expected another interrogation.
Questions about Arthur, Diablo, the folders, my strength, or any of the other things I’d casually dropped on her today.
Instead, she walked toward me without saying a word.
Then she wrapped her arms around me.
My brain stopped working for a moment.
She held me tightly, almost as if she were afraid I would disappear.
“…Helen?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice trembled slightly.
“Hm?”
“That they threatened your life.”
I blinked.
“I didn’t think that was important.”
Her arms tightened around me.
“It is important. If anyone threatens you again, if anyone tries to hurt you, tell me.” She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was softer.
“Even if I can’t solve it, we’ll face it together.”
Her grip tightened just a little more.
“…Like a family.”
I stared at her.
I wasn’t being sarcastic.
I genuinely wanted to understand.
“Family? You barely know me, so why? What makes you so certain? What if staying with me puts Gwen in danger? What if one day someone comes after both of you because of me? Would you still call us family?”
Helen didn’t hesitate.
“Yes. Because family isn’t built on how long you’ve known someone. It’s built on the moments that change your life.”
She looked at me, her expression calm and certain.
“The day you chose to protect Gwen and me, you became part of our family. If protecting you means Gwen and I have to face danger, then we’ll face it together. Family doesn’t disappear when things become difficult. It stays.”
“When did I ever protect you? The first time we met was three weeks ago.”
A faint smile appeared on her face.
“No. The first time you saw me was four years ago.”
I stared at her.
“That’s impossible. I would’ve remembered.”
“You would’ve, if I still looked the same.” She gave a small smile.
“I used to have long blonde hair. After my husband’s death, I dyed it brown, cut it short, and started wearing glasses. I couldn’t afford to stand out anymore.”
I frowned as an old memory suddenly surfaced in my mind.
A deserted street.
A frightened blonde woman.
A little girl hiding behind her.
Six bikers slowly closing in while my guards stepped forward.
My eyes widened.”…That was you?”
Helen nodded.
“Yes. You didn’t know my name. You didn’t know who I was, and you didn’t ask for anything in return. You simply saw a mother and her daughter in danger and ordered your guards to protect us.”
She smiled softly.
“That day, you protected my family. So when you ask if I’d still call you family, my answer will always be yes.”
“But you said you were here because of a promise between my mother and you.”
She looked at me for a moment before continuing.
“To understand that, you need to know why Josephine helped us—and how we met.”
I looked at her.
“You knew my mother?”
She nodded.
“We met in college and we became close friends. Then she left college and got married.”
Her smile slowly faded.
“Years later, after you saved Gwen and me, Josephine found me.”
I frowned.
“How?”
Helen took a slow breath.
“She heard that you had ordered your guards to protect a mother and daughter. When she learned my name, she came to see me.”
I stayed silent, waiting for her to continue.
“She asked me only one question. ‘Why are people following you?'”
She paused, and the room seemed to grow quieter.
“So… I told her everything. I told her how my husband was murdered, how he had been investigating girls who had disappeared and how they were being trafficked. I told her how almost everyone in the department was on their payroll and how they destroyed my husband’s reputation after his death.”
The room fell silent.
“She asked me to come live with her.”
“I refused.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
Helen looked down.
“I was scared. If I stayed with her, those people would come after her too. She didn’t argue with me or try to convince me. She simply asked one question: ‘Who’s the Police Commissioner handling this?'”
“And?”
“Within a week, he had been transferred.”
I blinked.
“Just like that?”
Helen smiled faintly.
“That’s when I realized Josephine wasn’t trying to fight the system. She simply knew how to make it work for her. Then she asked me another question: ‘Do you want this done through the law… or another way?'”
I looked at her.
“What did you choose?”
Helen was quiet for a moment.
“If it had only been for me, I would’ve chosen the other way. But this wasn’t just about me. It was about Gwen. I wanted her to grow up believing that her father’s work mattered and that the law could still bring justice. So I chose the law.”
I slowly nodded.
“So Mother respected your choice.”
“Yes.”
But one thought still refused to leave my mind, and the moment I said it, I knew I’d made a mistake.
“Even now… I don’t think that’s a big enough reason to put your daughter’s life in danger in the future.”
Helen fixed me with a sharp look.
“Maybe you think that, but I know what they did to women before trafficking them. So it may not seem like a big reason to you, but I know exactly what they would have done to my daughter… right in front of me… just so they could watch me break.”
The moment she said that, my mind went blank.
They were traffickers.
The last thing they would care about was age.
I don’t know why, but I felt a rage unlike anything I’d experienced before.
It felt as though my heart were being squeezed, and before I realized what I was doing, my grip tightened around the edge of the table.
Crack.
The table deformed beneath my hand.
Helen glanced at the damaged metal before looking back at me.
“It’s okay. You protected us.”
I took a slow breath and forced myself to calm down.
“So… did you put them behind bars?”
“Yes…” She hesitated.
“…and no.”
Helen looked down at her hands.
“Josephine used her connections. She had a commissioner on her payroll gather the evidence against them, and when the lawsuit began, she made sure the case went before a judge who was already on her payroll.”
She paused briefly before continuing. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
“Then came the day Gwen witnessed it all. It made her proud of her father. It made her believe that his pursuit of the truth had finally brought justice, even though the reality was very different.”
“Then came the sentencing.”
I listened as Helen continued.
“The police officers involved received three life sentences.”
Before I could process that, she added, “Every member of the trafficking ring was sentenced to death.”
I turned toward her, expecting to see anger or satisfaction on her face.
Instead, she simply smiled.
It wasn’t a smirk or anything cruel.
It was just a quiet, tired smile.
“She used her money to get me justice,” Helen said.
“That was the day I realized that justice and the law are weapons wielded by the rich.”
She looked down.
“A year later, every one of them received a lethal injection.”
I frowned.
“If I remember correctly… they can’t be executed unless they’re willing.”
“They all were willing.”
I stared at her for a moment before the realization settled in.
“So… Mother did it.”
Helen gave a tired smile.
“I guess she tortured them until death felt like relief.”
Silence filled the room.
After a moment, I let out a quiet sigh.
“I guess… I really am her son.”
After a moment, I asked, “So, does Gwen know any of this?”
Helen shook her head.
“She only knows that you protected us. That’s why she’s so attached to you. To her, you’re the man who protected both her and her mother when they needed someone the most.”
She paused before continuing.
“That’s why she always wants to know everything about you. She worries something might happen to you. She just wants to know you’re safe.”
“And I’d rather keep it that way,” she added.
“She doesn’t know the rest, and she doesn’t need to… unless you don’t want that.”
I finally understood.
That’s why she always acted like she was interrogating me.
Part of it came from her father’s influence, but the rest came from something much simpler—the fear of losing someone precious.
A small smile escaped me.
“I like how things are. I don’t mind her asking.”
Helen smiled.
“Thank you.”
I nodded slowly.
“Okay. Come on. Let’s go pick up my little interrogator… and have brunch.”
Helen laughed softly.
“I think she’d like that.”
We started toward the door, but just before we reached it, I stopped.
“Helen.”
She looked back.
“If you want to know what I did to Arthur… I’ll tell you.”
She met my eyes but didn’t answer immediately.
“If you’re not ready, then don’t force yourself. You don’t owe me an answer.”
Helen was silent for a moment before finally speaking.
“It wasn’t the law I was worried about. It wasn’t even what you might have done.”
She looked directly at me.
“I just didn’t want you to have to carry something like that this early in your life. Like I wanted Gwen to be able to stay innocent for a little longer.”
Her voice softened.
“And… I wanted the same for you.”
For a long moment, neither of us spoke.
I understood then that she hadn’t been afraid of what I had done.
She had been afraid of what doing it might do to me.
I opened the door.
“Let’s go.”
….
Author’s Note
I went back and edited this chapter to improve the formatting and make the writing flow more naturally.
I’m have moved away from the one-line style and make the chapters feel more like an actual novel.
I hope the revised version reads better.
As always, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next chapter!
revised version date 12|08|2026
Author’s Note:This chapter took me almost a whole day to write and around 12 rewrites.
I’m honestly not sure if I delivered what I wanted to, but I gave it my best.
I hope you enjoyed it.
And
Go ahead, destroy me with constructive criticism.